IBM looks set to break the habits of a lifetime next week when it makes the first of its anticipated 1988 mainframe announcements: first of all the announcement will be on Monday, not on its favourite Tuesday, second, it is ignoring the fact that Monday in the US is Presidents’ Day, a public holiday when the markets close – perhaps this is IBM’s message to its people that life is now real, life is now earnest and there’s no time any more for fripparies like holidays – or is IBM’s ignoring of Presidents’ Day simply a contemptuous comment on the calibre of this year’s 13 contenders for the Oval Office?
